The administration, which has been battling with lawmakers over the state budget for 10 months, didn’t deny that the move could have a devastating effect on the state’s crime fighting force. […]

Although lawmakers have approved a budget, separate legislation that gives the administration the authority to funnel it to specific programs has been held up as a bargaining chip over other issues, including a massive expansion of gambling that would pay for a $13 billion statewide construction spending program.

As the article notes, this is simply a “pressure” tactic on House Speaker Michael Madigan, the governor’s nemesis. But the threat is so ludicrous and would be so disastrous that nobody believes the governor is crazy enough to do it - although he has done some seriously crazy things in the past.

Wanted to make sure you knew the full story on the ISP situation in Lee News - because we aren’t threatening anyone, just laying out the facts - despite how headline reads.

The Illinois State Police depend upon BIMP legislation to pay a significant number of their front line officers (out of the Road Fund, which has taken place since 1984), and there has not been legislative action, despite this being the last day of veto session. Without this legislation, we simply can’t pay some of our bills - including salaries for state troopers. Layoffs are the last thing we’d want to happen and that’s why it’s imperative that legislators take action to pass these bills. New funding for schools and providers for those with developmental disabilities is also in jeopardy and the Illinois House needs to pass the BIMP bills so they can receive the money they are entitled to in the budget passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor.

ISP currently has funding for officers until January 1. If the BIMP is not passed by December 1 - only 6 weeks from now - ISP will need to issue layoff notices to approximately 1,800 of their officers. While funding levels were established in the budget passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor - we need the secondary legislation known as a Budget Implementation Act (BIMP) to make sure funds are transferred and available to make payments.

Oh…my….God. This “governor” has gone waaayyyy past embarrassing for this state.

This threat of mass lay-offs of the State Police force shows one of two things:

1) He doesn’t understand the tenet of “you only make threats that you can keep, otherwise, they’re ineffective threats”

2) If he truly intends to keep to this threat, it pretty much adds to the continually mounting evidence that Blago has “gone over to the dark side” mentally.

Or….maybe he’s just so cunning that he’s acting like this on purpose to 1) deflect attention away from his indictable legal issues, and/or 2) set up an insanity defense when the legal hammer comes down.

Could it be time for Mr/ I.M. NotInSane to reappear?
What a mess!
Now schools will get less money and
state police are on the hot seat
Perhaps some should reconsider which budget they wish to back
Hard to believe these guys had not thought this all out before jumping on the BlunderBoy banwagon

Why does he think it’s even appropriate to play with the livelihoods of 1800 officers? This goes beyond cold and imagine the backlash if he goes thru with it. The backlash from the citizens and I suppose the fired state troopers.

Perhaps the SpinSisters BoyToy should reflect
on the budget agreement that all four leaders agreed to back — through the veto override phase if necessary, determine if any leader has dropped the ball and ring that person up with a reminder.
Mean time, ISP ought to spend their money real slooowwwwwwww!

Rich do the Gov Staffers not read the papers or study State History??? Kolaz’s company getting over 1 mil worth of state contracts? Does anyone remember MSI, Fawell and G.F.Ryan? They are firing people for minor things but the big guys are getting away with funneling 1 Million Dollars to their own companies? What was Kolaz score on the Ethic’s Test?

DeJong is absolutely technically correct on this. Once they spend their non-road-fund money, they won’t be able to make payroll, and lay-offs require notice. I’m sure most of us doubt it will really come to this.

Wanted to make sure you knew the full story on the ISP situation - because if your boss isn’t threatening anyone, just laying out the facts - he is going about it as unprofessionally as he possibly could. Your boss should consider trying being a governor, instead of an idiot.

The Illinois State Police currently depends upon BIMP legislation to pay a significant number of their front line officers (out of the Road Fund, which has taken place since 1984), and there has not been legislative action, despite this being the last day of veto session. Without this legislation, we simply can’t pay some of our bills - including salaries for state troopers. Layoffs are not even considerable, nor should they even be mentioned. The last thing we’d want to happen is to claim that we cannot afford the Illinois State Police. The issue isn’t BIMP, it is a governor continuing a political tactic of rhetorical abuse and empty threats when he should be governing. He has had five years so far to learn his job, hasn’t he? ISP currently has funding for officers until January 1. If the BIMP is not passed by December 1 - only 6 weeks from now - ISP will need to find new revenue sources through the Governor and the General Assembly. While funding levels were established in the budget passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor - we need either the secondary legislation known as a Budget Implementation Act (BIMP) to make sure funds are transferred and available to make payments, or other revenue sources. But as long as we have a governor who is unable to reach out to his own party members within the General Assembly, he should consider other tactics to establish common goals that ensure Illinois continues to provide for it’s security.

I suspect Blago is doing politics as usual, not going bonkers. Among governors nationally it seems to have become the fashion to threaten government shutdowns…or shutdowns of parts of government.
Ever-gullible state residents seem to fall for it too.

Next door in Michigan, Jennifer Granholm just did one of those government shutdown numbers in order to get a sales tax implemented…it worked, despite Michigan’s obvious economic woes.

There is nothing new under the sun and that certainly applies to our Blago’s political tactics. Not a shred of originality.

This is typical of our Governor. The ammount of revenue generated by our Illinois State Ticket Writing Police could fund a small army. Obviously, his mouth is moving and stupid ideas are spewed out. So whether he is serious or not, it is to the point where SILENCE IS GOLDEN. He needs to stop embarrassing the residents of Illinois by making ignorant statements.

The Modern Mailing story is a hoot.
Bauman gets all concerned about a vendor after letting Stu Levine run wild for years
Talk about LOL
Of course Bauman did find his ethics manual when the FBI banged on the door.

Is it possible our Gov. is in need of rehab? I don’t mean this to be snide, hateful, or whatever, but progressively his actions are more and more bizarre. That’s not to say he doesn’t have a host of colleagues that may be in line as well…..

if they lay off ISP officer, then the trucks can speed up with the cars, after all, who is going to stop them.

The Gov comment seems hollow. Didn’t he previously take the position on the govt shut down that the treasurer could pay state workers regardless of a budget or a bimp??? why would that position of the gov not hold true for ISP troopers as well??

The layoff threat seems pretty hollow as the Governor insisted in July that an appropriations bill wasn’t necessary to pay state employees. Why now, would the absence of a BIMP bill necessitate massive layoffs? Technically, both bills are necessary in order to use the Road Fund, so why should the Governor use dissimilar reasoning now than he did in July?

The Governor wanted to shut State government down, has promised to veto the Hamos bill, despite the absence of any viable alternative, and now is threatening to lay off most of our state troopers. It’s certainly all very counterintuitive. What is he thinking??

Actually, what the Governor was saying earlier in the overtime was that the absence of an appropriations bill should not stop the Comptroller from issuing paychecks to state employees. Now he’s saying that mass layoffs to an agency responsible for the State’s public safety will result if there’s no BIMP, a proposed bill that, in essence, includes language that activates the Road Fund personal services appropriations.

The main difference was that in July and August he didn’t like the appropriations bill that the House had passed, so his stance was that appropriations weren’t necessary. Now he has an acceptable budget (with vetoes intact) that has appropriations he can’t use until he gets a BIMP. So his stance on the legality of spending without appropriations has changed. And it’s pretty obvious he’s changing arguments for political effect, and the threat is so over-the-top as to be absurd.

Justin and Boss, The people of IL are sick of your tatics. You were elected to be a leader not the laughing stock that you’ve made yourself.
Justin, you’re a well spoken and written young man. Do yourself a favor and find something more worthwhile to do with your life. Arn’t you getting tired of all this rabble?

It’s the second most commented story on their website. As for the #1 most commented story… read those comments at your own risk. Seriously, though, that’s one reason I enjoy reading this blog. Even the most ignorant, sarcastic and uninformed commenters on this site (I’ll leave it up to you to decide who they are) are geniuses and saints compared to many of the commenters that show up on non-moderated or poorly moderated sites such as the Pantagraph and Peoria Journal Star.